Back to History and Evolution
Archives.
History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 21, Socrates Philosophy:
August 11, 2003:
Exactly what was Socrates' philosophy? That is not easy to determine because Socrates did not write, and he did not found a school. He taught by example through dialog rather than by lecturing. Modern thinkers and writers are still in debate about what he was and was not. They probably always will be.
One youngster offered a telling answer to the question, "Who was Socrates?" Said the kid, "He was a teacher. He drank hemlock and died." In truth, that is about all we can directly document about this outstanding man. He left us nothing of his philosophy in written documents. Consequently, what we know of him came from those who knew him and wrote about him. Perhaps foremost among these was Plato. In many cases there is controversy as to whether Plato or Socrates was the author of the philosophical ideas we attribute to Socrates. I can only offer my own best opinion based on what I have learned about him from reading these others.
We can begin with the most important philosophical fact of Socrates time. That being that all of philosophy had become a hodgepodge of contradicting theories. This was, of course, not acceptable to Socrates. His reaction was a decision to not consider facts but only the statements we can make about facts. This may seem a bit subtle, but it was a change of focus that allowed him to approach generalized truths through systematic inquiry about a given theory. What will be the result if this theory is true? If the results of enquiry are consistent, the theory is tentatively, not necessarily absolutely, true.
Socrates then devised a hypotheses that is called the doctrine of forms. In this, certain definitive terms such as good, animal, wealth, or sweet are really the names of mental or thought objects. He calls them ideas or forms. So, the thing we designate as good is not the reality of the form, but a secondary reflection of the fixed or permanent reality. This is a key distinction which keeps us from confusing the idea with the thing we apply it to. That confusion is something modern politicians and managers do all of the time, sometimes on purpose, most often because they are too dumb to know the difference. All of us confuse money with the wealth it represents.
Socrates philosophy was first about finding precise definitions of these forms. He sought universal definitions which could stand as firm anchors in the philosophical sea of contradictions he found himself. He focused on elucidating the meanings of moral terms. He saw this as a first step in formulating an ethics of human behavior in personal and public life.
His method was inductive argument. Through that he would lead a person toward a clearer and clearer definition of some definitive term. This was the sophist method honed to a fine edge. The goal, however, was not to win a debate or to score on someone, but to elucidate a useful definition.
Socrates moved away from the ideas of cosmology as a field worthy of his attention. He wanted to make use of reason to create sound rules of behavior for people. He was interested in bettering the human soul. He did not see the soul as a separate thing, but as the essential person.
He thought that men do not achieve real happiness because they mistake what happiness is. They mistake wealth and power for good. He postulates that men who really understand true good will not be mislead by these mistaken notions of good. Here he stands in sharp contrast to the relativism of the sophists. He advances the idea of an absolute morality based on a behavioral model of what is good for man as part of all humanity rather than a citizen of Athens or any other place.
This lead Socrates to the idea that the statesmen should see his task as caring for the souls of his constituents. To do that, he must know what true good is. He also pointed out that giving the rabble what they ask for is not consistent with this idea of caring for their souls. He though the real flaw in democracy was that it put unqualified people in charge of the issues of morality. We can be sure this did not sit well with the people in power and was most likely the real motive for his murder.
What we have in Socrates is the first truly complete Western philosopher. He addressed the human condition and the political situation in which he found himself. He was an elitist and a critic of democracy. Though he did participated he did not seek power. He believed in law and lawfulness.
If he had lived today and managed to find a forum there is a good chance he would have suffered the same fate he did in Athens. Hack politicians and bureaucrats, in any age, do not suffer criticism well. What they cannot stand, most of all, is the comparison of themselves to a truly ethical man. Some power thug would surely have found a way to imprison him and hold him incommunicado in some remote place. Eventually he would have been tried by a hand picked tribunal and found guilty on some trumped up charge of being a threat to national security or a clear and present danger to America.
Even today Socrates would have refused to go along. That was his power and also what led to his murder. Going along is the most debilitating weakness of our current culture. No one takes a stand anymore. We have millions of people who just go along. It is so bad we give huge special bribes to people to stop them from just going along. This disease is as old as civilization. In America, our founders went along with the south and it later led to the most destructive phase of our history when Lincoln refused to go along.
Unfortunately, truly ethical men today cannot find a forum.
They are locked out by the entrenched thugs in all the viable
channels of communication. That is the political parties, and
all of the media channels. Socrates was in a totally different
situation. He could talk to people directly and word of mouth
was the only mode of communicating ideas. Others found out about
him because of that and came to him. They created his forum.
Back to History and Evolution
Archives.
|
|
|
|